Homepage Ko van Huissteden

Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences,

Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Research projects

Main research subjects:

Wetlands and river plains, carbon fluxes from
terrestrial
environments, Ice ageswith an emphasis on modelling.

Current research projects:

Carbon fluxes in peatlands and nature reserves in the Netherlands.
Oxidation of peat due to drainage of coastal peatlands may be a major
source of atmospheric carbon in the future, due to continuous increase
of land reclamation in coastal areas. In the Netherlands, reclamation
of peatlands already started in medieval times. Lowering of the water
table to maintain or increase accessibility of the peatlands for
agricultural use leads to continued oxidation of peat. The aim of this
project is to quantify the carbon dioxide and methane
release due to these land management practions for different types
peatlands.

Methane and soil carbon fluxes in permafrost environments
Predicted
global warming will be largest in the Arctic and will severely affect
permafrost
environments. By increased soil temperature, active layer thickness and
primary
production this may cause higher methane fluxes from the vast northern
lowlands
in Eurasia. In this research, part of the EU funded TCOS project,
methane
fluxes from Siberian tundra and taiga ecosystems are quantified and
related
to permafrost characteristics. Cooperation with the IBPC (Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Biological Processes of the Crlyolithozone) in Yakutsk

Paleo-carbon fluxes from terrestrial environments. Ice cores
show
major perturbations of the global carbon cycle in conjunction with
rapid
climate change during the last glacial. This projects includes
reconstruction
of paleo-carbon fluxes during the Quaternary, from paleo-ecological
data
in combination with modelling.